The
safe and secure interaction between humanity and its
architecture is often times challenged by mother nature. How
does an ambulance navigate up or down an emergency driveway
in the midst of severe winter snowstorm? How can we
ensure the handicap ramp or steps for a day care center are
free of ice? How can we ensure that seniors are not forced
to move out of their neighbourhoods because they no longer
have the physical capabilities to shovel snow? At the
same time that we can find good and rational applications for
melting snow and ice we find conflict in generating heat and
power only to release it back into the environment in a
negative way. For each position there must be a way to
design snow melt systems which achieve the desired outcomes for least
parasitic losses of heat and power.

Online
help
discussions have revealed that not only are commercial and residential
clients unsure of what a snow melt system entails they also have no
appreciation as to the costs associated with meeting
performance expectations. Helping them to ask the right
questions is the key to making the right recommendations for
snow melt controls. What they want, when they want it, and for how
long it is required, are just a few key questions to ask. If
they do not know, then it is up to the specifier to suggest
what makes sense for the application. After all, it is the
snow melt system designer’s recommendations for control
strategies that will directly influence performance and
operational costs.

It is unlikely the homeowner will
understand that the scope of running a snow melt system is
exponentially higher than running a space heating
system simply because of the transient or unpredictable
conditions and the magnitude of design loads required to
satisfy client expectations.
On the other hand, commercial clients have defined
expectations based on liability, client access, safety and
so on. The residential client may have similar concerns but
the degree might be different. For example, the commercial
client may not accept any snow build up on walks and steps simply to avoid liability exposure
with
pedestrian traffic while a homeowner may be willing to
tolerate some snow build up during heavy snowfall as long as
it melts within a reasonable period. Both applications may
be exposed to the same snow load but the control strategy
over fuel, power and load calculations for equipment is
different.